


Pre-launch Checks

by author_lee_green



Category: Gundam & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29882565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/author_lee_green/pseuds/author_lee_green
Summary: A pilot assesses the state of a top-of-the-line mobile suit, the Alliance, and the Rebellion as a launch for a sortie begins.





	Pre-launch Checks

"AL-262, begin pre-launch checks," called the coordinator. The pilot floated down uncomfortably into the AL-262's flat and angular chair, only cushioned on the sides for crash protection and immediate thrust adjustments. The Alliance could not bear to risk their pilots for neck injuries with the frequent turns and corrections the mobile suit needed to make in the middle of a battlefield. Not when finding new pilots became a frequent need.

 **Operating system booted.** The last pilot of the AL-262 couldn't handle the gs. A reverse thrust maneuver popped some blood vessels on his upper-right side and ultimately led to fatality. It's a shame - piloting the AL-262 was a privilege. This was the most advanced mobile suit in the fleet. Its sorties were reserved for Rebellion insurrection and always served the purpose for the Alliance to flex its overwhelming defensive capabilities. All of the authority figures agreed on that.

 **Power 98%.** It didn't matter that the pilot's target was a new colony. It only amplified the stakes. Newer colonies were more likely to join the Rebellion; they hadn't had the standing time to have fully benefited from being members of the Alliance. They were young to the system, and thus, too young to understand why the Alliance had to show its cards.

 **Engine idle.** The gears turned beneath the pilot and gave off a steady hum in the pressurized cabin. It was easy to feel the engine diverting power to all of the following systems. All this energy was devoted to the singular purpose of restoring balance within the colonies. An Alliance was just that - all states under a single, unified umbrella capable of bringing peace and power to every arm of the system. It was oddly something the Rebellion refused to cooperate with.

 **Thrust operators stable.** The last pilot had too much gusto and thrusted their way to the infirmary. Even against opposition, what was the rush? The Rebellion would come and go, one year after another. When one dies down, another will take its place. They always falter against the might of the Alliance's mobile suits; against the Alliance's pilots, hand selected from the colonies themselves. Surely the difference in stability is enough to warrant embargos, quarantines, or blockades instead of mobile suit patrols and interceptions.

 **Oxygen recycler running.** Although the vacuum was ever unforgiving, the slightest hull breach would put the stress of breathing on the pilot's suit. It's a fickle thing, how even the Alliance can take the action of breathing for granted. Each colony's dome has a finite amount of the resource and depends on the raw resources of additives, environment sectors, and even deliveries of such precious materials like air or water. Perhaps the Alliance offers too little recompense. Maybe an embargo wouldn't be such a great idea if the colonies are prevented the resources required to not only function, but survive.

 **Network linked and connection viable.** The Rebellion needed to see just why the Alliance is the most logical conclusion. It is the only conclusion, or so the pilot had always been told. If everyone and every colony is allied, then even the pilots wouldn't be necessary. Yet even so, with the amount of money and time and power and force collectively pooled into the might of the Alliance's mobile suit army, was there ever going to be a time where the machine stopped turning?

 **Navigation correction normalized.** In the event a sortie stretched toward failure, which would be rare enough, there were always specific guidelines on retreats. Only when the vanguard was thoroughly broken through, or perhaps an enemy unit was prepared to self-destruct. All the same, retreat was looked down upon. The Alliance knew it had the numbers in a raw fight, and beyond that, the Alliance would always have the personnel to survive any brazen defeat.

 **Course correction in guidance mode.** The select few can handle the amplification of gs amidst a vacuum battle. Railguns, point defense cannons, gravitational waves; these are only a few amidst the wide array of miniature doomsday events that the Rebellion can throw into the gaping cold of space towards their assailants. Only the few, the pilot pondered, can survive the adjustments needed to avoid such weaponry.

 **Primary fire active.** The weapons prepared were a combination of standard issue machine gun and bazooka. On the ground, these weapons could level buildings with a single trigger. Why were they the standard outfit when most sorties were insignificant? Checks, patrols, and scouts all required both. What more did the Alliance have to prove?

 **Secondary armaments on standby.** Perhaps the Rebellion stood for something more than angst against the machine. Perhaps it was more about refusing to be strangled when the only options were struggle or suffocation. Come together or die. Then what was the pilot's purpose in this? What did the last pilot die for?

 **Targeting computer online.** The realization hits the pilot. They are expendable. They mean nothing to the Alliance at the end of the day; only a means to a solution. The solution of ruling the colonies with an iron grip, specifically, through their mobile suit militia. Only the few found in the colonies can pilot the machines to control the colonies. A vicious, demanding cycle with no reprieve or accolades other than a congratulatory speech. This was it. On one hand, the end of the pilot. On the other, death of everything the pilot might stand for. Which one was enough to call victory? The Alliance had already decided.

"AL-262? Have you completed your pre-launch checks?"


End file.
